Why Continue to Serve? A Letter to Millennial SWOs
I have a challenge for you “millennials” now serving as surface warfare officer (SWO) junior officers on active duty in our great Navy if you are considering leaving military service. I review the junior officer (JO) and exit-survey information and know you have many good reasons for leaving. I am very troubled by the manpower summaries that show you are not affiliating with the Navy’s Reserve component. You joined to serve, yet when you transition from active duty, you leave behind another great opportunity. I ask that you consider continuing to serve in the Reserve.
Obviously, I believe in “generational theory.” Millennials, as a generation, have a propensity to serve. I see what you do every day around the world and consider you another “greatest generation.” You are serving during the most difficult economic challenge since the Great Depression and in a war against people who would do anything to destroy everybody and everything that you love.
Service in Common
Consider this case study. It is a little-known fact that there are three admirals serving today who once served together as first-tour JOs on board the Knox-class USS Fanning (FF-1076): Vice Admiral Dirk Debbink, Rear Admiral Pat McGrath, and me. We are baby boomers; two of us are SWOs; and we served together at the pointy tip of the spear during the Cold War. As “boomers,” we may have generational differences with you, but we actually have much more in common, since we share the bonds of service and the sea.
Was the Fanning special? In some ways, she was. We had the first acoustic “tail” in our ship class and were experts at antisubmarine warfare. We chased Soviet submarines across the Pacific and into the Indian Ocean. We were part of the rescue task force during the Iran hostage crisis in 1979. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, we saved starving refugees in tiny boats fleeing Vietnam. Looking back, I now recognize that although we didn’t belong to a heroic generation as you do, we were the best in the world at what we did in that place and time. We were typical of other JOs serving at sea then. All of us were doing difficult and crucial tasks around the world, just as you are today. Then and now, we are carrying on a heritage that began when the fledging U.S. Navy deployed against and defeated the Barbary pirates. Flash forward 100 years: That heritage continued when the Navy deployed as the Great White Fleet and provided relief when a devastating earthquake and tidal wave struck Italy. One hundred years later, we are still a global force for good.
I admit that serving on active duty is not for everyone. It obviously wasn’t for Dirk, Pat, or me. We made a decision to get out, but we also wanted to continue to serve for a variety of good reasons: the money, the benefits, the excitement—and the chance to be part of something bigger than ourselves. From my civilian viewpoint, our military is unique in this last respect. There are very few civilian opportunities that allow one to provide this level of contribution to the world, especially while working alongside people one knows and trusts.
As for me, I worked hard to earn my SWO pin. It was an incredible ordeal to earn my warfare qualification, just as it is for you today. It was a rite of passage. I just couldn’t leave the Navy completely. When the time came to leave active duty, I wanted to keep the Navy in my life. Interestingly, my driving motivations for staying Navy have shifted as the years have passed. When I was a JO, I used the extra cash from Reserve weekends to make payments on my four-by-four pickup truck. Back then, I never would have thought it would have meant so much to me to sign the Survivor Benefit Plan paperwork after 20 good years that ensured my wife would be taken care of for the rest of her life, no matter what happened to me.
All branches of the service and their communities have their own cultures. Our SWO culture has its particular challenges. The not-so-secret dirty little secret about being a SWO is that the inside jokes are painfully true. We can’t expect you to work on Saturday if you won’t work Sunday. We really do eat our young. However, I’ve found that serving as a SWO in the Navy Reserve is truly different from serving on active duty. For all practical purposes, you are a free agent. You can choose when and where you serve. You can make time for family, education, and a civilian job in a way that you cannot while on active duty. That’s not to say that life is easy as a reservist. You still have to work hard to balance life with family, your civilian employer, and the Navy.
The Reasons Change
I chose to serve in the Reserve mostly in the dirt and green water in Navy Expeditionary Combat Command units. Pat continued to fly. Dirk supported Navy and joint staffs. Sometimes we questioned why we were doing it. Reservists often get looked at by their active-duty counterparts as the proverbial fifth wheel. The acronyms JAFR and FUBIJAR take on a painful reality. We left loved ones and employers behind when mobilized for war. The proverbial glass ceiling proved to be very real in our civilian careers. But we kept serving because it was truly worthwhile to us. Honestly, none of us did what we did to make flag. We did it because we loved what we were doing. We were blessed that our families and employers recognized this, though often begrudgingly, and supported us in our life journey.
The Chief of Naval Personnel and Chief of Navy Reserve are working to make the transition easy from active to reserve and back again. You can stay Navy. You have the option to make lane changes in your journey through life.
The future of the Navy’s Surface Reserve Component is exciting. You don’t have to do what Dirk Debbink or I did as surface reservists. There is a menu of interesting jobs and places available to you, and there will soon be even more. Reserve SWOs will have an important place in some of the key missions and capabilities coming into the surface force in the littoral combat ship, ballistic-missile defense, and the fourth riverine squadron.
As you consider your future, take the opportunity to reach out and contact one of us or any other Reserve SWO. Use the SWO e-mentoring program. Find a Reserve officer recruiter, or if you are already transitioning, ask the Career Transition Office to connect you with a SWO now serving in the Reserve. I’ll bet that many of you, just like Dirk, Pat, and me, will find that continuing to serve by coaching the neighborhood softball team or leading the scout troop is wonderful but just isn’t enough. I am confident that you will find the Navy Reserve to be as rewarding as we have and still do today.
After many years, I came to realize that life is what you make of it. The corollary is that serving in the Navy, both active and Reserve, is what you make it. As millennials, you want to make a difference. You want flexibility. You want it all. You can do just that in your Navy’s Reserve.